Kitchen renew or move

perbinder

Thank you for so many comments. Will try and address them

perbinder

NinjaTune said:

I guess it depends on how much time you like to spend in the kitchen vs the living room.  If you entertain, e.g. dinner parties, regularly then swapping it round could work well - plenty of space to have a sofa plus dining area.  The french doors would be lovely in a living room during the summer months, bringing the garden in, but it might feel cramped during the winter months.

Less about dinner parties etc but more about having more space in the kitchen when family are around. I agree with the lounge being lovely in summer. For winter was thinking of putting a wood burner in to make it cozy. 

perbinder

coachman12 said:

I agree entirely with what AdrianC said to the O/P in the first reply. Does anyone really want a bigger kitchen than lounge?  Does anyone really spend more time in a kitchen as opposed to a lounge? A larger kitchen could easily be obtained by merely switching a table and chairs into the lounge, next to the enlarged kitchen. As for moving the kitchen to the front of the house, I just cannot see any advantage in doing so at all. Good luck.

This is the problem. I am not sure what the next buyers will want. I would prefer a bigger kitchen but the next buyer may or may not. In my last house which had a massive kitchen the buyer knocked out walls to make it even bigger. 

perbinder

Doozergirl said:

It is a great big lounge for a two bed house! 

I'd be tempted to knock much of the dividing wall through and to play with the proportions of it a bit more, whether it's open plan or whether you put a wall in elsewhere to create two/three distinct, but quadrangular spaces.   It would cost a little bit, but I think you could improve the flow and the saleability.  I think it would make it a really nice place to live if the spaces were more balanced.  

I'd definitely take the opportunity whilst planning a new kitchen. 

Have thought about it but worried about cost. Would have to remove back wall but also some of the side wall. Not sure if that is even possible. Will need structural engineer. I agree with you that would make it flow much better. Maybe that is the compromise. Will certainly look into the costs. May not be as much as I think but may be more!

perbinder

MFWannabe said:

I’d leave kitchen where it is personally with bi fold doors on the one side in place of patio? 

I did put bi-folds in my last house but the EA told me it didn’t affect the house price just the sellability. If we have any money left over at the end we may put them in. 

perbinder

MFWannabe said:

MFWannabe said:

I’d leave kitchen where it is personally but change the layout? I would brick up where patio door is and have kitchen over that side with dining area as you come from living room with a set of bi fold doors there so it flows through from lounge into garden

This is what I’d do 

Most of the garden is to the side with a small garden at back. That’s why the patio doors are sideways. 

perbinder

AdrianC said:

coachman12 said:

Does anyone really spend more time in a kitchen as opposed to a lounge?

Yes. We spend a lot more time in the kitchen than the lounge.

Our kitchen is 6m x 4.5m, airy and light, triple aspect with windows S, E and W, an 8-person table in it, and space around that. We both love cooking, and we tend to do "proper meals" most nights, so a fair bit of time cooking and eating. In effect, it's a combined kitchen and living room.

Our living room is the opposite end of the house, still large - 6m x 3m - but darker (3 small windows in one side, albeit S) and cosier. It's where we retire to later evening if there's something we particularly want to watch on the tv (the tv goes on maybe twice a week at most), or if we're lighting the woodburner. Perhaps think of it in the old "withdrawing room" frame.

But that's a very different layout to the place the OP's looking at. You could move the kitchen into the big room - and use that as an open-plan kitchen/diner/living room, spilling into the extension on nice evenings. But then I think i'd get frustrated at the narrowness of that strip - plus it not being opener-planier in to the main room, and that'd be a big job. If you were up for that job, then it might make more sense.

As a compromise, I'd probably plan the kitchen to be more in the large end of the extension, with the galley strip more as a utility, and put a large, open doorway nearer the "kitchen end".

This is exactly how I feel. Would love the kitchen at the front but would get annoyed by the strip. I may end up doing the latter of making the kitchen in the square bit next to patio doors. Won’t allow me to get my island.

perbinder

Scotbot said:

I would move the wall between the kitchen and lounge back into the lounge so both rooms are rectangular thus enlarging the kitchen. The lounge is large enough. Similar to Doozergirl's suggestion but not open plan. It is probably a  retaining wall so you would need to put steels in . Not cheap but the neither is moving plumbing. 

I will certainly look into the costs but am concerned that I have to move the original external wall corner not just the back wall. Not sure if that is even possible or how much it would cost. 

AdrianC

perbinder said:

This is the problem. I am not sure what the next buyers will want. I would prefer a bigger kitchen but the next buyer may or may not. In my last house which had a massive kitchen the buyer knocked out walls to make it even bigger. 

Never mind what "the next buyers" will want. You're living there in the meantime. How do YOU want to live?

walwyn1978

AdrianC said:

perbinder said:

This is the problem. I am not sure what the next buyers will want. I would prefer a bigger kitchen but the next buyer may or may not. In my last house which had a massive kitchen the buyer knocked out walls to make it even bigger. 

Never mind what "the next buyers" will want. You're living there in the meantime. How do YOU want to live?

This. Unless you’re doing it up to sell immediately,,do what you feel works for you.